Just days after a new round of complaints surfaced about Internet service providers throttling broadband for streaming services like Netflix, Comcast has reached an agreement with Netflix aimed at smoothing the streaming connection for consumers. This is huge news, because the Comcast and Time Warner deal will cover 30 percent of all cable and broadband subscribers.

As someone who pays out the nose for the very best broadband package, with all the useless bells and whistles, I still noticed that — when we were running Netflix on two devices — that Internet speeds slowed to a crawl. Exchanges like this aren’t unusual in my house: “Honey, can you pause Foyle’s War for a minute. I need to upload this New Girl GIF.”

Anyway, the deal will allow Netflix to connect directly to Comcast’s network instead of going through intermediaries. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, although you can be that it cost Netflix a shiny penny, and that Netflix will continue to make these deals with other Internet Service Providers and that, eventually, it will lead to a modest price increase, one that I’m willing to absorb if it means I can upload a New Girl GIF without interrupting my wife’s viewing of Foyle’s War.